Craving Risk or Lacking Control?
Craving Risk or Lacking Control?
Are you a risk taker? Do you wonder why you got that way and got addicted? It may be in your brain, but not in the craving for drugs, as you might have heard. That line about having no self-control has a grain of truth to it.
A study by researchers from several institutions (including UCLA and Texas) studied subjects’ behavior based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that identified behaviors while playing video games that mimicked risky decision-making. The study used software to predict behavior (safe choice or risky choice) based on the brain activities of executive function, control, memory and attention.
The software’s analysis of the activity in different areas of the brain showed that acting or not acting on the choices was a function of control. They lacked the control to say ‘bad idea,’ but weren’t craving the risk. People who would risk more and potentially lose more were those who engaged in risk-taking behaviors like smoking, drinking, drug taking, unprotected sex or driving without a seatbelt.
Studies like this can tell you more about how complex our brains and behaviors really are. That may help you or it may not. So you may be right when someone says ‘why can’t you just stop? I did. It’s no big deal.’ Knowing it and understanding more about your behaviors is the first step to identifying them and realizing you have to choose change and work at it.
Recovery Connection can help. Our intake specialists can find a treatment center that can help you learn about your own addiction and give you the tools to treat it. Call us 24/7 at 866-812-8231 for help.
